


Spirit-Touched

by Thisisnotthenerdyouarelookingfor



Series: Spirit-Touched [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Air Nomad Genocide, Air Nomads (Avatar), Airbending & Airbenders, Alternate Universe, Bending (Avatar), Earth Kingdom (Avatar), Earthbending & Earthbenders, F/M, Family Bonding, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Firebending & Firebenders, Gaoling (Avatar), Gen, Northern Water Tribe, Out of Character, Sort Of, Southern Water Tribe, Spirit Shenanigans, Spirit World, Spirits, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24428128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thisisnotthenerdyouarelookingfor/pseuds/Thisisnotthenerdyouarelookingfor
Summary: Raava isn't the only spirit to manifest outside of the spirit world; the others are simply less predictable. When they manifest within a single generation, however, that's when it gets interesting.
Relationships: Aang & Bumi (Avatar), Aang & Gyatso, Aang & Kuzon (Avatar), Aang & Raava (Avatar), Arnook & Yue (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Hakoda & Katara (Avatar), Hakoda & Sokka (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Kanna & Katara (Avatar), Kanna & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Kya (Avatar), Katara & La (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Kya & Sokka (Avatar), Lu Ten & Zuko, Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Oma/Shu (Avatar), Ozai/Ursa (Avatar), Sokka & Spirits, Sokka & Yue (Avatar), The Gaang & Yue (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Toph Beifong's Parents, Tui & Yue (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar), Yue & Yugoda (Avatar)
Series: Spirit-Touched [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764433
Comments: 46
Kudos: 448





	1. Agni

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at writing for ATLA, though I regularly consume works in the fandom. This work combines elements of LOK as necessary, though I don't actually like LOK very much by comparison. This also takes inspiration from many places: Vathara's Embers, ShaShirRa's Balancing Acts, aloneintherain's writing, ShanaStoryteller's writing, MuffinLance's writing, and many more. Hope you enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agni takes a vessel from Sozin's Line, the first in generations. He hopes this one will be the best of them. He is only the first in a series of awakenings.

Darkness. 

Gentle beats, from a heart above.

Peaceful swaying and growth.

The knowledge that greatness could become.

Light within darkness.

Loud wails, from the mother and none from the child.

Softness and a gentle gaze.

Harsher light, of an inner fire fueled by anger, and anger alone.

An inner fire which was too big for the body it was in, dimmed to be safe from that harsh light.

An omen of ill fate, with birth in darkness.

Shrill cries, as the sun peaks over the horizon.

A new day dawns, as Agni’s vessel awakens.

~

“His name shall be Zuko, for my father.” 

A hungry gaze looks for an inner fire to succeed him, enough to rightfully claim power. A gaze that sees the dimmed blaze, that of one too weak, not one too strong for the vessel it lies in.

The gentle beats of before, paralleled within and without. 

A promise of power, from the rising sun to the new light. 

  
  


~

“Lu Ten, be careful. He is quite delicate.” Large and small hands surround him. The large hands recognize the frailty of the vessel, the small hands feel the strength within.

Iroh sees his father’s and brother’s face in the little one in his hands, as he did not see in his own son. He prays that the cruelty shaping them does not shape the heart of his nephew.

Lu Ten, young still and excitable, sees a small creature that he knows as his cousin, who does not seem to fit within his own skin, but will learn to play with him, as he grows.

~

Zuko toddles around the Royal Palace, looking for warmth to match his own. His mother and father are busy with Azula, his sister named for his father’s father. She has an inner fire that blazed from the day of her birth, blue as her name.

_Zuko._

He turns, hearing that which he knows is his name. No one is there.

_Zuko._

He looks again for the voice calling him. No one is there, though the fire in the braziers has grown.

**_Zuko._ **

****

He hears the whisper this time from the tongues of flame and tries to touch them.

**_Zuko._ **

They reach back. He does not burn, and instead laughs, at the tickle of the flames on his hands.

**_Zuko._ **

They surround him, swaddle him in the gentle flames that match his inner fire, and he pulls on them in turn. He loves the fire, and the fire loves him back.

~

He sits on a blanket with his uncle and cousin, happy with the sun on his face and the turtleducks in his lap. There are guards around, and servants too, but for the moment it seems to just be the three of them.

Iroh smiles and moves the turtleducks before lifting Zuko in the air to peals of laughter from him and Lu Ten. He wishes for good fortune for them, his son and nephew who could be brothers, but are yet not.

Lu Ten laughs as his cousin does, brightly and merrily, for the fun of it, for the turtleducks, for the red bean buns, for the sunny day, and for the love he feels, for his father and cousin (brother).

~

Kindness comes easily to him, the son of fire. He waves to the children in the street as they pass and they wave back, slightly, with fear tinged in their eyes. He has not yet been taught to be fearsome, all of six years old, and yet. 

He does not run from the cruel gazes of those watching his growth, but does not bask in them either, like Azula has been taught to, bending from the age of three, an unusual prodigy. He looks for those without the harshness, those with the warmth of the fire that swaddled him as a child. He cannot find them easily.

~

Zuko is taught to meditate by instructors, and later the Fire Sages. No one notices, save those who look closely enough, that when he closes his eyes and times his every breath, every fire in the Caldera breathes with him. 

This is not enough for Ozai. Ozai seeks the quick burn of his daughter’s talent, charging through katas with grace and precision, with fire hot enough to disintegrate on contact. He cannot see what he is doing, causing a never-ending pool of hatred that can be pointed in any direction, even back at the source.

He learns fast, but never musters up enough anger to bend in the style of Sozin. It is simply not in his nature. His fire burns in passion and love, not the fiery, yet cold anger of his father and sister. This is the beginning of Sozin’s Line’s downfall. 

~

Zuko falls into a fountain atop a noble’s daughter to save her from the burn of carelessly aimed flame. She is sharp, but still warm in spirit. They are acquaintances, and begin to see each other more often, as she befriends his sister and a bubbly girl with six sisters. 

She learns to use knives, to run with them, to harm with them, and how not to harm with them. Her friend learns to block chi, to even the field. Azula learns to wield cold fire, having mastered the blue flames.

He learns to wield dual dao in secret, from a master committing treason. It is enough for him to defeat masters.

~

Lu Ten is not coming home from Ba Sing Se. Lu Ten is _gone._

Zuko’s father takes him and Azula before Azulon, to demand power in the guise of grieving for his brother. Iroh is not home to protest.

They must prove that they are capable of becoming heirs. Azula goes first, Ozai’s favorite, capable of bending feats beyond the capabilities of masters. She never slips, never fails, never stagnates. She is always better.

He goes then, through the katas that he has been taught. He tells himself to breathe, that he is capable. In another life, he slips, and is threatened with death. Here, he begins to deviate, taking on forms of his own, and bending both inner and outer fire, with the blessing of Agni upon his head.

Azulon still refuses Ozai’s claim to power, for what does powerful offspring prove in the face of a better brother, despite Iroh's failures in Ba Sing Se. He pays for it with his life. Azula does not tell Zuko that he must die; she goes to bed that night with a distant but loving brother and mother, a father who pushes her to the limits of her abilities, and the most powerful man in the Fire Nation as her grandfather. She wakes up to her panicking brother, her mother gone, her grandfather dead, and her father as the Fire Lord. She is the Crown Princess, and he is the Crown Prince.

~

Zuko sits on the dais, in a meeting he is honored to be a part of. He hopes he may get the opportunity to speak up on what they discuss.

One of the ministers proposes marching the 41st Battalion to the walls of Ba Sing Se, which not even the Dragon could take down. A futile endeavor, throwing new recruits barely older than him at a city of powerful earthbenders not even the former Crown Prince could take down.

He speaks up, in the name of justice, and kindness, and stopping unnecessary violence. In speaking out of turn, he has threatened the authority of the Fire Lord. There is only one solution.

_Agni Kai._

Zuko mounts the platform prepared to face the minister, an apology already on his lips.

He turns to face his opponent. Ozai stands there, an ugly sneer distorting his face, ready to strike Zuko down.

He falls to his knees, the apology spilling from his lips uncontrollably.

Ozai walks forth, hands blazing. Zuko, frozen, does not move from his position.

“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher!”

Ozai’s fire touches the left side of Zuko’s face.

The braziers erupt and spill their flames upon Zuko, who begs for forgiveness.

The flames whirl, faster and faster, and Zuko is gone.

~

Ozai puts out an order for Zuko’s exile despite his lack of presence. His only condition to rescind the order: bring back the Avatar, and his honor will be restored.


	2. Tui

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agni's brother takes a turn with a vessel. In saving her as a child, he marked her as one with an important destiny, to be determined by her choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well! I took some liberties, given how much we simply don't know about Yue's childhood. Also, I made her a waterbender for the purposes of this fic, because it fits better with my vision of the future plot.

Weak cries.

Weeks early.

The child sickly, not fully formed.

Prayers, night after night.

Healers, cycling in and out, in the hopes of one more day making the change.

Circles within circles.

Yin and yang.

A last hope.

The child rocking above the waters then below, not floating but sinking.

Light, seeping, from moonlight to water to newly anointed vessel, for what else could she be? 

White hair, but brown skin, warm to the touch, smooth, and holding what can only be potential.

A vessel, to match a brother to the South.

~

“She shall be called Yue, for the blessing of the Moon Spirit that saved her.”

Affection held in eyes and hands, yet ignorance, of what the blessing truly meant, of the nature of her duty.

Unconditional love, growing in both yet waning, as one slips away, part of her life taken in exchange for that of her child.

Joy turned to anguish, at the loss she cannot yet comprehend. 

The gaze of a master, looking at her newest student. 

~

Yue, frail and delicate still, remains in the grasp of the healers. Rejuvenated chi and claiming can only do so much in a matter of hours.

Yugoda sees a flow unlike any other, a push and pull that strengthens body and spirit. She does not see that which lies truly behind it. She can only feel for what she hopes to be an answer.

Arnook sees his little girl, the only remnant left of her mother, growing stronger by the day. He resolves to cherish her, protect her from the world so that she, too, cannot be torn away.

~

Yue is friendly to many but friends with few. Young still, she chafes at the bit of her father’s orbit, wanting to escape the walls of what should be sanctuary but is instead a gilded cage.

She plays with the girls at school, hoping to be a part of this community within communities. She is welcomed, though few see her as Yue and not just the Princess.

Boys like Hahn throw snowballs at the other girls, and stick their tongues out. For her, they bow their heads and turn away. At least her friends get a look at their faces.

Yue makes a best friend in Miki, a girl of passion and daring. She is the one to sneak Yue out of the house and into the streets, where they play and throw snowballs of their own. The reprimand is worth it, for a taste of freedom.

~

Water responds to her touch, flowing up when she imitates the practice of the waterbenders in the courtyard. The push and pull lies in her soul, a rhythm beyond her own heart’s beat.

She is sent to Yugoda, to learn to heal, to waterbend in the only means she is permitted. This comes easy, for the blessing of Tui makes visualizing the flow child’s play.

Though she learns to heal quickly, with skill and precision beyond her years, she is never allowed to see the truly injured. She cannot learn to bend water out of the lungs of a child, or repair the savaged leg of a warrior, only removing the aches of daily life.

When she finally learns to bring someone back from the brink, she begins by giving too much. Yue pours herself into the practice, leaking chi into the bodies of her people. They come back, good as new, in miraculous recoveries. When she finally gives beyond her capability, she faints, and is carried away, the worried voice of her father and teacher echoing above her.

She learns from the experience, but wonders whether she could save more by giving again. From then she is relegated back to removing aches and pains, to ensure she does not slip away again.

~

Yue returns to the Spirit Oasis. It calms her aching soul. She cannot simply leave and learn what it means to change, to wax and wane. Her duty constricts her to the boundaries of the closed North.

She sits by the pool, Tui and La constantly circling. She closes her eyes and slows her body, feeling the flow of the sacred garden. 

Sometimes, when she’s here she begins to see others behind her eyelids. A girl who shifts with waves. A girl, grounded in earth. A boy who breathes with fire. A boy who floats on the wind. 

They all seem to not see one another, passing by with nary a glance. 

The shifting girl, shrouded in blue, seems young and playful. She can only push and pull on the boundaries of her life so much, but seems content.

The grounded girl is pale with a splash of brown and green. She does not move; the earth moves around her. She is just as trapped as Yue.

The fiery boy, dripping reds, charges onwards. He forces his chi out indiscriminately, throwing life to the masses, but it is never enough. 

The floating boy, in orange and yellow, while hovering, cannot move from the spot. He is unnaturally still, frozen with a presence beside him that seems cold and yet warm.

There is another, sometimes. He walks, same as her, with eyes open wide and seeing all that she can, with more she cannot. 

He holds out a hand, but when she takes it, her eyes open, and night has fallen.

~

Yue has never been loud. She is calm, sweet, and innocent to her people’s sight.

In truth, she has learned guile. She knows how to smile to get someone to drop their guard, how to draw out an answer with naught but a word, how to get her way.

She sits in her father’s meetings with the elders once she turns thirteen, and listens to their grumblings about how she is too young. She bears them with grace, but turns their arguments against them with a well placed statement here and there, inserting her ideas among those of theirs.

If she is to lead this tribe when she comes of age, she will do it on her own terms, without needing someone to do it for her.

~

Yue’s hand in marriage is promised to Hahn long before her sixteenth birthday. She does not hate him, but his incessant talk of the “perks” that come with marrying her begin to grate after some time.

Sometimes, she feels like she is not a prize to be won, but collateral placed for the future of her tribe.

She is the one who learned to give herself to her tribe, as a healer, as a leader, as their beloved princess. After giving herself for so long, why then can they not see her for her?

~

Yue begins to dream of a man in the Spirit Oasis. With bright white skin and a shock of black hair in the center of his forehead, she knows instinctively that this is Tui. This is the spirit who gave her life.

Silent, he beckons her into the sanctum. She sits beside the pool, as she does when she wants to escape. She looks into the water and sees the red of a blood moon as a cruel-looking man holds a bag with Tui’s mortal form in it, leering as he takes the life of the moon spirit. She sees black rain and her people fleeing. She sees the towering ocean spirit destroy the Fire Navy and aches a little for the loss of thousands of lives.

“This is a potential future for you. You have the choice now, to prevent this. Will you do so?” Tui is both blunt and hidden, leaving Yue to decipher his statement. He extends a hand, waiting for her to claim her position.

She knows her duty.

She takes his hand, and some of the light from his skin flows to her. Her hair glows brighter and a black circle takes form on her forehead.

She wakes, knowing what is necessary to save not only her tribe, but the world.

~

The spirit portals of the Northern Water Tribe become more active to match their pairs in the South as the World Spirit begins to awaken. 


	3. La

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Tui is calm and peaceful to the North, La is not so still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little different from the previous ones, because it also looks into one of the other characters that's getting a chapter, though that will be later on. As such, it is a bit longer, and covers more than just La's vessel.

The long night. 

Second-born, with an awakened one born two summers ago.

Dark waters around the ice, the walking-whales below.

Tui facing away, his light dim.

The wise woman nearby, waiting for the moment.

The mother, slack with sleep; the child murmuring within.

Simple work, to enter, for the home offers respect, and the child’s mind is a blank slate, to take the teachings that cannot be given, not after the last strike.

Startling awake, for mother and child are ready. 

The child crowns at the break of night, of the darkness and the light within on Tui’s weakest day. Dimmed already, he cannot slip in here, not with his own charge to care for. La can.

She cries, expelling the liquid in her lungs and learning to breathe in a world where she is the last of her legacy.

A droplet in the Ocean.

The last Southern waterbender.

La sleeps for now, knowing her teachings will bear fruit when her droplet is fit.

~

“Hama would be fitting, but it is not right to name one for one so recently gone. Let us choose anew.” The wise woman counsels her son for the sake of her granddaughter’s life; for spirit-confusion is not a fate any should have to face.

“Katara. She will be named Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe. She will unite us, and circumvent all barriers.” The wise woman’s pronouncement rang heavy, sealing a fate in the path of her son’s child’s spirit.

The open-eyed one, the brother, sidles close to the mother. He looks at the bundle containing his new sister, and knows, instinctively, that she does not fit the bounds of her body. Knows she will grow to be fearsome and powerful. Knows La’s touch on her, though he cannot speak the words aloud. Not yet.

The father only sees his family, for what is more important than that which binds them together?

The mother sees her children, and wonders how long they have to be safe.

~

When she is two, Katara bends the water in her brother’s bath to ice. She had been brought to anger by a simple game on the ice which resulted in snow slipping down the back of her parka, and sought her slight revenge in the coldest manner she could manage.

Her brother exclaims and tries to fight the ice surrounding him. He looks up and sees the look in her eyes, and knows she has satisfied his actions with retribution.

Their mother reenters from where she had left, and chides Katara for freezing her brother. She removes it, and he is bundled away to warm up by the fire. 

Kya comes close and tells Katara she cannot do that anymore; they could not lose family to the biting cold from within when it already weathered the outsides of the village. Katara agrees, but does not understand. She is too young, too alone to know what she could do.

She can never learn from the rest of her legacy, who were gone, trapped away from the community and perhaps dead, as they are now.

~

Katara and Sokka have few playmates besides themselves for now; those stolen away would have given them friends.

Those who are left are all older, but willing to learn with them. They accept them as their chief’s children, as friends, as those who might press forward.

When the call comes to meet with the other tribes of the Southern Confederation, Katara looks for a friend, and teacher, a bender like her. She does not find one.

Their little village is one to only have been struck once in the search for the waterbenders. She is the only one left.

~

Kanna watches her grandchildren grow up peacefully, and knows she did right to brave the seas in her youth. She sees her grandson grow up boisterous yet calm in his own right, not worried about being promised to a girl around here. In fact, he does not like them much, save his sister. She observes her granddaughter growing strong and kind, enough to give her hope for the future and for her tribe.

She sees the beginnings of a wise one in Sokka when he looks out over the Ocean and fixates on a spectre none but she and he can see. When he knows to tell his father not to send anyone out on the nights when the forgotten dead lash at the shores of ice. 

She sees the start of a protector in Katara when she bends salt out of the water by the handful, when she plays with the babies not as if they are simply new, unknown friends, but like family, when she changes as the Ocean does, to enact justice for the small wrongs of her friends, brother and herself.

She knows she can trust them to do right, to know when the spirits have taken over, when the arctic sickness saps the life of parents and children, when the storms must be faced and when they must be weathered.

She does not stop to wonder what it would have been like had she not left. This, here, is all she needs to know.

~

Sokka learns from his father how to aim, how to hunt, how to fight. He learns his role as the protector of the tribe. He learns the use of weapons, so that he may strike when needed, but seal it away at other times. He learns how to thank the life that gives him life and never take too much, so the spirits he sees are never angered by the hunt.

Katara learns from her mother how to weave, how to cook, how to prepare. She learns what lies within the bodies her father brings back from the hunt. She learns how to find that which will save and that which will harm. She learns how to dance, how to throw herself into the push and pull, to appease the spirits that haunt the summer, and those who haunt the winter.

On his own, Sokka learns where to look, where to find the walking-whales prowling, and avoid them in the hopes of somehow finding a catch that day. He learns the changeability of the tides, and compares it to the waves of emotion he sees in his sister, who gives everything in her love and in her hate.

On her own, Katara learns to bend salt from water, to preserve the meat and blubber of the arctic hippo, to keep for the winters. She learns to use the dances she has been taught to manipulate the waters that threaten each summer, to use them as protection and as a weapon against those that threaten the tribe. She begins to fortify the snow around the village into walls of solid ice when she learns of the raids that come to take away her people. Day by day, they grow to protect her people.

~

When the Southern Raiders attack, Sokka is apart from his father and the boys that he grew up with, doing his best to shepherd the younger children far from the fires that burn on the fuel of spirit. This is the day he earns the right to begin to hunt alone, for one who can protect so young can learn what is necessary to survive on the hunt. He shields them with his body, not much larger than theirs, and holds his boomerang in shaking hands, ready to protect them. The elders, mothers and babies have gone on; these are the stragglers who were caught up in the blazes.

Katara is hidden in the back of the central igloo, but still watching as a soldier in a red helmet threatens her mother. He asks where the last Southern waterbender is. The rest have been rounded up by the raiders, to be imprisoned in the Fire Nation. Kya refuses to tell him, and is struck for doing so. He asks again, and again, and again, for he knows she lives. Every time, Kya refuses, and that means more time for the warriors to fend off the raiders, for the elders and mothers and children to escape farther inland where the ice is thick. For Katara to stay alive.

Katara watches as her mother claims her title to protect her. She watches as he strikes her down for the last time, blue eyes open and glassy, with pain but not fear.

Katara’s anger and grief cloud her vision. She lets go of her body and lets go of self-restraint, of control, of what her mother taught her. She takes a step back in her own mind and sees those like her, in the shadow of the spirits that chose them. She gives unspoken permission to use her form and save her tribe from the grief she is experiencing

The one in her body takes a step and throws daggers of ice at the hands that slew her mother. He jerks back, knowing he has found his target. She ducks under the flames thrown at her and pushes the ice of the ground to entrap him. He dodges it and sends another bout of flames that has begun to melt the ice. 

She leans back into the voice that has whispered in her head since childhood and takes control of the water in his body. He freezes, and she walks him out of the igloo away from her mother’s corpse. Walks him to the edge of the encampment, and past the fighting, toward the breaking ice. She holds him there and calls to her people, giving courage and anger towards the invaders. She strikes fear into the hearts of the men who came to find them.

She makes him approach the edge, and calls the fighting to a halt. With every call to let him go, she makes him take another step. She tells them to leave her village, to leave the tribes, to go back from whence they came and repent for their actions. It is Katara who offers this last bit of mercy, before La’s justice comes. The echoing timbre of her pronouncement sends them fleeing toward the ship that brought them here. 

The last of them still lies in her control. She takes a last look and sends him to the ship with his fellows. La cannot fulfill Katara’s revenge; she must do so herself, when she is ready to face it.

As La relinquishes control, Katara barely fights the exhaustion of possession and collapses, much to the consternation of her father and his fellows.

She is carried to the new outpost where the others have gone and stays asleep, not awakening until the next full moon, when Tui’s brush rouses her. 

~

Years later, Hakoda tells Katara and Sokka that the warriors must leave to strike back, in order to prevent the destruction of more villages. They are the last line of defense, and they must protect those remaining.

~

Not far away, a glowing iceberg begins to form cracks, waiting for one of the vessels to break it open.


	4. Interlude: Open-Eyed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a world where the Great Spirits take vessels to cast their influence, there must be those who can recognize them and work with them to cause change. This is one of them, the open-eyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long for me to get out; I got pretty busy all of a sudden and didn't have time to write like I wanted. This chapter does take a slightly different perspective from the previous few, so be prepared.

From the day Katara is born, Sokka can see what lies in her mind. He sidles close to his mother and sees the power lying behind her blue eyes. When she falls back asleep, he sees it go dormant. It does not wake to his sight again for years, save the occasional glimpse.

The spirits that whisper in his own ears tell him not to say anything. La lies dormant, they say, and she should not be angered. Sokka listens and does not regret it.

His sister will grow up just that, as Katara of the Water Tribe before she is La, the Ocean, the Vengeance.

In the meanwhile, Sokka must learn what it means to be open-eyed in a world of spirits.

~

When Sokka plays with his sister in games, in snowball fights, he thinks nothing of the competitive spirit he sees in her passion for them. He thinks nothing of it when he throws a snowball at her back and it slips down her hood.

When Katara freezes the water in his bath he tries to fight the cold taking the feeling from his limbs. He looks up at her and sees what he saw the day she was born in her eyes. He knows this is in return for his earlier actions.

He averts his gaze and does not look back, even after she unfreezes him and their mother bundles him up to ward off the cold.

He does not want to see the other that trails in her footsteps, that makes her shadow long even when the sun does not set. His heart pauses, for just a second, every time he sees how ancient her eyes seem to be, despite her young age.

~

When Sokka is given a boomerang for the first time, he takes to it like a fish to water. He never fears it not returning, though it returns in unconventional ways at times.

The first time he sees a spirit carry his weapon back to him, he gapes for just a moment before taking it back, tossing it the seal jerky he had squirreled away in his pocket, and sprinting away. He knows the spirits that float on the water are not to be trifled with.

He begins to hear calls out on the ice, of his name, of the names of those he loves, of his people. He returns home that night and tells his father the spirits are unhappy.

No one is dragged away on the ice that night, and the warriors start to look at Sokka with new eyes. No one questions him when he looks out on the water and sees a horde, only taking his word and following it.

~

Katara may not have the benefit of a waterbending master, but what she does have is a mother who knows the traditional ways of healing, and a brother who speaks to those passed and gives her what he knows. She learns her limits and how to protect herself and those she cares for. She learns the push-pull of the body, of the blood in her veins and vows never to use it to harm.

Sometimes, Sokka will bring her out on his solo trips, and talk to the air until she feels a pull on her limbs that is not of her doing, and one on the water too. It feels foreign, ancient, but not as ancient as what lives within her.

Sokka sees the forgotten dead rise from the depths in the dead of winter, when it is not the cold that seeps the heat from one’s limbs, but the dark. He sees them float by, specters in the light of the moon, some leaving tracks in the snow with the weight of their presence.

Not all of them wear the colors of the Southern Water Tribe; some wear the oranges and yellows of Air, few wear the browns and greens of Earth, but those remaining bear the reds and golds of Fire. At first, Sokka tries to dispel them, and cannot, for their power is greater than his spiritual knowledge. They reach their cold fingers into the igloo and yearn for the spirit they know lies inside to let them go, to release her hold on their bloated bodies.

Sokka cannot bear to make his little sister take the burden of La when she is yet learning, so he stands in the way and blocks their advance. This he can do, with his young voice and hands, but old eyes.

~

After venturing even further South, both alone and with his family, he begins to have dreams of benders with the strength of spirits.

Of his sister, in the push and pull, the Ocean in her shadow and her volatile nature. The blackfish and the walking whales swim beneath her as she pulls on hearts with her very nature.

Of a girl, grounded in Earth, playing and learning with badgermoles, two figures with their hands on her shoulders, waiting and watching. She waits, but does not idle.

Of a boy his age with Fire in his steps, charging onwards, because Fire cannot bear to wait. The Sun shines upon him and he glows from within, like the dragons of old.

Of a boy, floating on Air, dodging and deflecting continuously. The Autumn Lord brushes his bald skull and the arrows upon it, but Order lies against his chest within and without. His shadow falls far longer than the others.

Sokka knows this is the Spirit Realm in which his dreams occur. He knows it surely as he did the day his sister was born. He tries to rouse them, seeking companionship in their small corner of the Spirits’ home. They do not wake.

Eventually he comes across another girl with the Moon lighting her shadow. She too, seems awake, and touches spirits without seeing them as he does. 

He reaches out a hand, to see if she will ignore him as the others have. When she takes it, his eyes open to the Physical realm and the Spirit-Touched are gone.

~

The day the Southern Raiders attack, Sokka is thrown into the role of protector that he has been trained his whole life for. He follows in the path of his fleeing people, picking up as many stragglers as he can and shepherding them in the footsteps of the elders, away from the fires that have begun to melt the ice of the walls Katara built up. His hands shake as he throws himself in front of the people he is one day destined to lead.

The soldiers throwing fire suddenly come to a halt, faces paler than before. An eerie call strikes fear into their hearts as his sister, no, _La_ , holds their commander in a twisted manner, forcing him to step ever closer to her borders to become another of the forgotten dead. Calls for mercy, for her to let go of the man fall on deaf ears.

They are given an ultimatum: to leave the village, leave the tribes, go back from whence they came and she will let him go. Sokka knows instinctively that this is Katara speaking to them, and not La, for the Ocean, while changeable, does not show mercy to the irreverent.

The Fire Nation troops drop their weapons and flee for their ship, not wanting to anger the spirit their lives now rely on. She lets the man go and sends him on his way.

When Katara falls to the ground, Sokka knows La has left her body and has gone back to the Realm of Spirits to recuperate from having had physical form.

Somehow, he knows that there could have only been one reason for Katara’s possession, and does not fight off the tears coming from the grief. He may not have seen his mother’s death the way Katara did, but seeing her spirit float atop the waters as her body passes into the Ocean is enough to break down the barriers he has been futilely holding up, in the hopes of staying strong.

~

When Hakoda tells them of the warriors’ attempt to strike back, Sokka knows the protection of the village has been left in their hands. Gran Gran may be their spiritual leader in the absence of their father, but they are the only ones left with the training to prevent the slaughter of their people. Their resolve must be unshakeable, the responsibility heavy.

~

Sokka begins to notice an older spirit of Air, with a moustache reaching below his face, beckoning him while he is out fishing with Katara. He does not know for what the spirit needs them, only that they must go.


	5. Oma & Shu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some spirits do not operate as deities; some come from the physical realm and return every so often to influence those who gave them power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! Sorry for the wait. Some characters didn't want to speak for a while, so I was a little stuck on certain parts.

Some spirits are not primordial.

Some spirits attain their status through great suffering and toil, and die, held up as legend to those they served.

Some spirits come back, not as the forgotten dead, but as something  _ other _ , something that raises the hairs on the back of one’s neck, having presence without image.

Oma and Shu are renowned for their love story, for putting an end to generations of warfare, for breaking all barriers in the face of their love.

What is not remembered is that which their teachers taught. Many have learned to earthbend after their time, but do not truly become one with the earth as Oma and Shu were taught.

No, that style is reserved for those who seek it out. For those who learn from the original earthbenders by their own choice, who are grounded but not still.

It is no surprise to Oma and Shu when this honor is extended to the little blind girl born to a noble earthbending mother and a wealthy father. The little blind girl, whose milky eyes will not limit her as her parents believe.

Not all spirits are primordial, but those who are not have more freedom, to go forth between the realms, and make for something,  _ someone _ , greater.

~

“She will be Toph Beifong, for the delicate blossoms of the season of her birth, and the noble family from which she comes.” Ink is trailed across a page, marking the child as delicate, and pretty, and feminine.

The mother holds her child, believing in her young perfection, hoping that those seafoam green eyes will settle darker like hers and bring light to her daughter’s eyes.

The father’s disappointment is present despite his happiness. He sought a son, to carry on the family name and business, not a daughter, who will be taught the subtler arts.

~

Toph is passed off, from wet nurse to nanny to governess, for her parents cannot spare the time to see her, too busy with contracts to care for their infant daughter. 

None of the hired help knows how to care for a blind child. They are careful, above all else, preventing injury and keeping Toph in the bounds of the Beifong estate.

All this does is trap her. Earth may not want for freedom as Air does, but when the time to strike passes by, entrapment is unbearable. Patience is not idleness.

Toph strains against the bonds of her place, wanting to explore beyond the grounds she knows like the back of her hands. That opportunity does not come until later.

~

On a day when Toph is itching to escape, something odd gives her pause. The weight of a hand on her shoulder stops her from hiding in the gardens and surrounding herself with Earth.

Instead she is brought to a gap in the walls of the Beifong estate. Just wide enough for a little girl to slip through and escape the confines of nobility.

The gentle weight continues to guide her, out and away to the nearby forest. She is led to a clearing, full of rich Earth, unbound by the constraints of Gaoling. 

There, she finds solace in the Earth around her, but not companionship. Not yet.

~

There is, at one point, a nanny who lets her be. Who lets her go to play in the forest like the child she is instead of a rich man’s blind daughter. This period is when she finds the badgermoles. Blind, just like her, but manipulating the earth and observing without sight.

It is important to note that the nanny is an earthbender, too. She is the one to see the signs and teach Toph the basis of control. After all, a lady must be demure, yet unmoving in her desires, like the mountain.

In learning control, she learns not to see, as her parents might have wished, but to observe as the original masters did, to find the press of flesh against stone, the beating of hearts in chests, the placement of objects around her. 

It is in learning to sense the world that Toph begins to truly notice the phantoms. The brushes against her shoulder and face that feel like affection but have no presence, no weight, no rhythm that speaks of a living creature. Her nanny, unshakable though she may be, has no explanation for the unknown Toph carries.

Over time, the Beifongs realize the freedom Toph has been given, and take it away, as Toph’s sole true human companion is sent away. Years later, Toph will feel a similar figure in a girl only a few years older. She will shrug off both the instances of care and reactionary temper, for attachment to someone like that will only lead to loss for Toph.

In the meanwhile, Toph is tutored by a Master Yu, to make sure she never causes a ruckus with the Earth she bends.

~

Sometimes, when Toph is especially fed up with her constraints, she will take a backseat in her own mind. No one notices, not even the tutors hearing her blank answers, not the servants scurrying around, each step light and yet heavy to Toph’s feet. She lets herself be ferried around to carry out the life of a rich man’s daughter, imperfect though she may be.

It is in these periods that the phantoms come around, light touches guiding her out of the clutches of the Beifong households. She is spirited away to learn from the badgermoles, to map out Gaoling so she may find her own way about, and eventually to the underground arenas of Earth Rumble.

While skeptical at first, the participants quickly learn to take her seriously. After all, getting beaten by a blind child is not conducive to large egos. She escapes more and more, using the chance to release some of her pent-up aggression on those who can take it; on the Beifong estate, the people would never let her release anything.

The Beifongs begin to pray more fervently to the spirits for the safety of their daughter as she grows more. Their prayer only encourages the excursions guided by phantoms that none but their daughter can sense.

~

When rumors of the Avatar come to Gaoling, it is no wonder that Toph is put on the alert. Those who have raised her always know when the World Bridge is awake. The surprise comes from the vessels accompanying him. A Prince of Fire bearing a dragon of old, Princesses of Water paired like yin and yang, and a boy with eyes that see beyond the physical realm.


	6. Raava

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A century before the awakening of the Great Spirits to vessels, Raava again takes one of her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're at the end of this one, people! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and wherever Spirit-Touched goes beyond this.

Avatar Roku falls to fire.

Avatar Roku dies trying to fight back a volcanic eruption.

Avatar Roku dies from the betrayal of his once-closest friend, turned enemy.

All at once, the world’s balance is shifted, just for an instant.

In that instant, Raava is at once everywhere and nowhere. In the Spirit World and the physical realm. Searching for the next World Bridge, the next Keeper of Order, the next Avatar.

She finds an airbending nun in the throes of birth, her child already blessed by Pavan. 

She settles into the little one’s skin, laying against his heart and knowing the world will be in good hands. Roku murmurs gratitude and goes forth to settle among the past hosts of the World Spirit.

Cries from the child signal good health as the sun dips toward the horizon. The music of the whistling wind sings through the courtyards of the Western Air Temple, marking the blessed of Pavan. The cold of the winter settles in, though few truly feel it. 

~

“He will be called Aang.” He is named for the future, in the hope that peaceful soaring will be a part of his life. 

The Air Nomads have yet to know of the Avatar’s death and subsequent birth. All they know now is that a healthy babe has been born to the winds of spring.

Aang joins a nursery of children at the Western Air Temple, cared for by the nuns until they bend the air around them, or not. The children there are joyful, playing and learning in one of the four safe havens of the nomads.

~

When Aang is two years old, he bends air for the first time. He steals a breath of wind in the nursery, playing with it and shaping it. The other children crowd around, looking at his odd movements as he ruffles their hair and clothes.

The attending nuns praise him for his gift and herd the children away from him to organize the chaos. He sleeps that night none the wiser.

The next day, Aang is shown to an older monk by the name of Gyatso. Aang goes up to him, curious about his presence. Gyatso catches his attention and shows him a marble trick, sending them spinning through the air and mesmerizing the toddler. 

This is the last day that Aang spends at the Western Air Temple for over one hundred years; he only sees a few of the children he grew up with again.

~

At four years of age, Aang is brought before the Council of Elders. He is asked to choose from a chest of objects, all of sentimentality.

He pulls out the headpiece of a Fire Nation noble, the life before his calling out to familiarity. The Council breaks out into whispers, about his destiny, and the fate of the world.

Aang bounces back to Gyatso’s side as they are sent away from the Council chamber. Even now he reminds Gyatso of his old friend from a lifetime ago.

The Council decrees that Aang is not to be told of his position until he turns sixteen; this is not to be, not with the weight of imbalance pressing earlier than expected.

~

At six, Aang is taken to the Eastern Air Temple to find a partner for the first time. He stares in awe at the herds of bison flying together and playing in the air.

He presents an apple to a baby bison who has just touched down with his family; the bison, quick to trust, eats it from his hand and nuzzles him in turn.

This is the beginning of a lifelong friendship, the meeting of an Avatar and his animal guide, but most notably, a path to freedom for Aang to see the world. 

The Avatar is the World Bridge, the Keeper of Order, one of all nations. What better way is there to become one with the world besides experiencing it?

(Raava will not make the mistake she made with Roku. Isolation to a single nation, by choice or not, always overthrows the balance between spirits)

~

At eight, Aang has progressed sufficiently in his study of airbending to be allowed to travel across the nations among the nomads. He delights in this, seeking out adventure alongside Gyatso.

He meets a boy of Earth, who, with unconventional thinking and tactics comes close to the original masters’ style, but not quite. Aang rides the mail carts with him and thinks  _ ‘mad genius’.  _ The boy will be the only one to see Aang after his flight; Oma and Shu’s descendants have always had vitality and longevity.

He meets a boy of Fire, who, while settling for mediocrity in bending, seeks to learn from and fly with the original masters. Aang saves a dragon’s egg with him and thinks  _ ‘flameo, hot man’ _ . The boy does not see Aang again after his flight; his descendants, now close to the Caldera throne and blessed with the skill he lacks will.

Over the next few years, Aang traverses the world, riding hog-monkeys, hopping llamas, and elephant koi. He leaves a trail of mischief in his wake, but also a trail of friendship, and kindness. Most of all, he leaves a trail of innocence. Aang is a world-wise child, spiritually wise and yet innocent of the world’s violence. 

(Gyatso fosters a love of travel, of freedom, of the world in him, and Raava is grateful. Aang will not lose himself to loyalty and die from betrayal. His ties will be light enough to set him free to be one with the World)

~

Aang gains his tattoos at the age of twelve, the youngest airbending master to have been named for countless generations. This is the start of his separation from the other Acolytes. They have not come close to his talent in years, and start to mark him as overly talented, too much for them.

This is only exacerbated by the elders telling him of his role. He must go forth and master the other elements, for danger is afoot and the Air Nomads have no army to face the Fire Nation. The masters may be great, but the children are not yet ready to face the dangers of war, and there are far more children than masters.

And so, saving them becomes Aang’s responsibility. When he tries to approach his friends at the Temple, they push him away. After all, he’s the Avatar. He shouldn’t be simply winning childhood games; he should be saving the world.

Aang flees at that. If he is not welcome among his own people, where can he go?

He flies south, hoping time away will clear his head of the doubt and fear, and give his friends a chance to be forgiven. 

Before turning back, Aang and Appa are caught in a spirit-storm, the likes of which haven’t been seen for years. The last Avatar’s death stirred unrest in the spirit world, angering the stronger spirits. Left to stew for years, they express their anger in the form of natural manifestations.

This is the first use of the Avatar State since Avatar Roku’s death. It is also the last use for 100 years after.

Those attuned to the Spirit World feel the stirring and tell those who are obliged to know. This, along with the auspicious arrival of the Comet of Strife, prompts an early start to the siege on the Air Nomads. After all, if the Avatar can use their power so soon after Roku’s death, then destroying them should be all the more necessary. The Air Nomads cannot be given too much power.

~

Sozin’s armies destroy the remaining Air Nomad population. This is a fact that cannot be argued. They did not, however, eliminate all people of Air.

Only the monks, nuns, acolytes, and young children lived at the temples. Everyone else, all those who could not bend during childhood, moved to the villages below the temples and spread out across the nations. 

Some stayed nomads and used their affinity for spirits to guide travelers along spirit-blessed or-cursed paths. Some used their natures of air, of deflection and constant movement, to make a new way of defense and hold their own, as the first chi-blockers. Some simply integrated themselves into their new societies and hoped not to face the inquiry of the Fire Nation.

The children who were smuggled out learn to disguise their bending as other styles. After all, the strongest winds can move water, earth, and fire. Some learn to block chi to remove interest from their bending.

The problem is that all formal styles of Airbending are lost to the new generations. The old masters and their oral traditions are gone leaving only the work of children who lost everything and the rejected masses of nonbenders. Airbending as it was, is lost to the sands of time.

All that remains is those who adapted and moved on.

~

100 years later, a vessel uses her brothers club to break an iceberg with a boy in it, and the world gets a taste of antiquated knowledge that has been lost to genocide. 

(Raava rejoices in her newfound freedom; becoming one with Aang for a century severely limited her contact with the World, her domain. Who knows what could have happened in her absence)

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to be assisted by some worldbuilding later on; if you'd like to ask me directly, you can at my tumblr:  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thisisnotthenerdyouarelookingfor


End file.
